2020 Miscellaneous Links: Untitled Moose Game

[Captain K]

But he won America's hearts.

Didn't win EVO though.

Neither did the Americans!

[Cmdr_King]

It's okay. Gamers tend to stereotype based on labels. Everyone who generalizes based on labels is an asshole.

D'ya know, I TRY to tell people I'm an asshole and nobody ever believes me?  Fuckin' optimists man.

So I'm not sure if I actually want to real-talk this.  It seems a bit much.  But.  In the past year I've come to feel that the culture around gamers, as a group, is unsalvageably toxic.  That the mechanisms in play are self-reinforcing towards bigoted behavior and entitlement.  And so the only Solution, then, is to destroy the culture and build anew.  I can't really call myself a gamer anymore in good conscience, and hope others come to the same conclusion. 

And it's amazingly hypocritical of me because at the same time I know that the sorts of games I enjoy can't really exist with the emerging sub-subculture of games.  So I buy games from companies that ultimately are going to fail and lament their loss even while simultaneously believing that their loss is necessary for a culture I used to claim to become something healthy and worthwhile.

And yes this is the shit I think about when chat is too quiet and I get bored in the wee hours.  Gotta hate yourself thoroughly. 

[Hunter Sopko]

It's okay. Gamers tend to stereotype based on labels. Everyone who generalizes based on labels is an asshole.

D'ya know, I TRY to tell people I'm an asshole and nobody ever believes me?  Fuckin' optimists man.

So I'm not sure if I actually want to real-talk this.  It seems a bit much.  But.  In the past year I've come to feel that the culture around gamers, as a group, is unsalvageably toxic.  That the mechanisms in play are self-reinforcing towards bigoted behavior and entitlement.  And so the only Solution, then, is to destroy the culture and build anew.  I can't really call myself a gamer anymore in good conscience, and hope others come to the same conclusion. 

And it's amazingly hypocritical of me because at the same time I know that the sorts of games I enjoy can't really exist with the emerging sub-subculture of games.  So I buy games from companies that ultimately are going to fail and lament their loss even while simultaneously believing that their loss is necessary for a culture I used to claim to become something healthy and worthwhile.

And yes this is the shit I think about when chat is too quiet and I get bored in the wee hours.  Gotta hate yourself thoroughly. 

You're well on your path to supervillainry there.

[Fenrir]

Stop watching so much hentai Cmdr king

[metroid composite]

But he won America's hearts.

Didn't win EVO though.

Neither did the Americans!

There were like 20 games at EVO.  Surely the Americans won one of them...right?  ......right?

[Captain K]

They won Mortal Kombat.  Barely.  Over a British guy.  I think you have to be like 60 years old just to purchase Mortal Kombat in Britain.

[Ranmilia]

I actually have logistic questions about that spoiler:

1. Is there even any implication or reference to the world as we would recognize it or is it just thrown in from out of nowhere? If you reread, would there be things you would miss the first time that would be blatantly obvious the second time?
2. Is there any true or cohesive attempt to create a scientific explanation that makes sense about how they world was able to change so much that upon initial review, there was literally nothing in common with Earth now?
3. Do any maps ever given resemble Earth in any manner?

Late responses due to EVO madness, re: Shannara:

1. Yes, there are skyscraper-like ruins and talk about horseless carriages and such in every book.  It comes off as "lost generic hypertech civilization" at first, but a few trilogies in there is a prequel that is actually set in modern Earth just as the wars are breaking out.  Rereads make a lot of the references easier to spot.
2. Not really.  "War happened, nuclear, chemical and biological WMDs were used."
3. Yes, the main area of the series is the American/Canadian Pacific Northwest.  It gets more obvious as the maps zoom out in later books, but even in the first book you can verify it by the river and lake layouts.

[Captain K]

Persona 4 top 8:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hscblqsOydQ

[NotMiki]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/07/study-online-gaming-losers-are-more-likely-to-harass-women/

Study demonstrates, in a limited context, that male FPS players treat female players worse depending how bad the male players are.  Should be interesting to see what comes out of this.

[NotMiki]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmMnJdDDoDM

My favorite match this EVO: Woshige vs. Nakamura, Xrd Millia mirror match

[AndrewRogue]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/07/study-online-gaming-losers-are-more-likely-to-harass-women/

Study demonstrates, in a limited context, that male FPS players treat female players worse depending how bad the male players are.  Should be interesting to see what comes out of this.

As a longtime LoL player, kinda surprised to see that the effect was not at least partially mirrored across genders. Wonder if voice chat makes actual differences (re: perception of being able to be hostile).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmMnJdDDoDM

My favorite match this EVO: Woshige vs. Nakamura, Xrd Millia mirror match

God that match is so much fun to watch.

[DjinnAndTonic]

They won Mortal Kombat.  Barely.  Over a British guy.  I think you have to be like 60 years old just to purchase Mortal Kombat in Britain.

America won Smash 4, the only game that matters.

[Captain K]

Smash 4 was decided before the tournament began, dude has won 41 straight tournaments.  I watched the Smash 4 Top 16, and it was horrible.  Didn't bother watching Top 8 for that or Melee.  Can safely say custom moves won't be back next year.

[Reiska]

I didn't watch, what happened with custom moves?

[Captain K]

http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo1/v/7919999

Can start watching at the 20 minute mark.  This wasn't the only example, but basically there's massive amounts of stalling/timeouts.

[AndrewRogue]

http://www.twitch.tv/srkevo1/v/7919999

Can start watching at the 20 minute mark.  This wasn't the only example, but basically there's massive amounts of stalling/timeouts.

Holy crap that match was agonizing. But I'm also not a huge fan of Smash, so the bias may be there. >_>

[Cotigo]

http://www.undertale.com/

Toby "Radiation" Fox (one of the main contributors to the MSPaintAdventures sound team) made a pretty interesting game here. Very clearly Earthbound inspired, pretty clever. The battle system makes you go through bullet hell attacks from the enemies to not take damage, and that's not even the most interesting thing about the game. The Demo's only an hour long, I highly recommend checking it out.

[Lance]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IptvSQY9Qa8

[DjinnAndTonic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IptvSQY9Qa8

Cute. But apparently when they say "Every JRPG Ever" they just mean "Final Fantasy IV and VII"...

[Sierra]

And IX. I thought Not!Balmafula was a pretty clear nod to Kuja.

[Excal]

Eh, can't forget the Chrono Trigger vibes when the mom wakes the guy up so he can go to the generic festival of plot importance.

[Cotigo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IptvSQY9Qa8

Cute. But apparently when they say "Every JRPG Ever" they just mean "Final Fantasy IV and VII"...

There's quite a bit of VI and CT in there too, yo.  1000 years ago magic died etc. + Not-Balmafula = Kefka for 6, and CT is basically everywhere. Secret Tomboy Princess and Fighting an "Actual Goddamn Dinosaur"? That's basically all I remember about CT.

[Cmdr_King]

I got a distinct Xenogears vibe from An Actual Goddamned Dinosaur myself.  I'd be willing to say it's pretty true up until about the PS2 era.  At that point oddball shit like Star Ocean or Shadow Hearts was the norm more, and classic NES-styled plots the exception.

[Hunter Sopko]

The music cues are all over the place too. One of the songs was clearly Legend of Legaia.

[NotMiki]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books

want to call attention to this bundle.  To Be or Not To Be is absolutely great, and everyone should own it.

To Be or Not To Be is the choose-your-own-path version of Hamlet, written by Ryan North (Marvel Comics, Adventure Time, Dinosaur Comics), William Shakespeare (Macbeth, Cymbeline, Hamlet too I guess), and you (all sorts of stuff!)

You can play as Hamlet, Ophelia, or Hamlet's Dad, but if you choose him you die on the first page and have to play as a ghost investigating your own murder.  It features over 100 different endings, each illustrated by one of the greatest artists working today, including Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant), Andrew Hussie (MS Paint Adventures), and Noelle Stevenson (Nimona).
If you want to stick to Shakespeare's original plot, helpful Yorick skulls mark the choices Shakespeare took.  But why would you want to do that?  Especially when, instead of a play-within-a-play, there's a choose-your-own-path book within a choose-your-own-path book.

To be or not to be: that is the adventure.

Anyway for folks going to DLCon I'll be bringing a hard copy we can read and it will be Fun Times.